The early season is good for experimentation and moving swimmers around the lineup, as long as the athletes are talented and versatile enough.

That indeed is the case for Salem's varsity girls swimming and diving team, which Tuesday night parlayed a lot of mixing and matching and superior depth to a 125-60 victory over campus rival Canton.

"Our team has so much depth," said Hannah Tardiff, one of Salem's standout senior captains. "All our relays are able to score points whether it's the A relay, the B relay, or the C relay.

"And then in our individual events we're really strong, too. We always have one swimmer that's really strong in each event."

And for Salem head coach Chuck Olson, there is no better time than the first weeks of a season to switch things up and see who might be able to do what when crunch time arrives for his team (now 3-0 overall).

For example, on Tuesday, Tardiff swam the 50 and 100 freestyle events instead of her usual 100 butterfly. She scored points in both events, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

There were others who gave Olson food for thought.

"Lisa Zhang had a real nice swim in the 100 back (first, 59.35), that's the first time she's gotten to swim the backstroke in probably three years and she hit a state cut time," Olson said. "And Linda (Zhang) had a state cut time in the 100 butterfly (first, 59.04), which is where Lisa's usually at. They kind of switched places.

"The captains (Tardiff, Stephanie Solterman, McKenzie Maurice) did a nice job tonight. It's a whole team effort. ... And they all went different events tonight. Maurice is usually a backstroker, sprinter, freestyler and she swam the 500 free tonight."

Maurice did the job, too, finishing fourth with a time of 6:10.16 to help chalk up two more points for the Rocks.

Salem also took all three relays. The quartet of Xu, Linda Zhang, Lisa Zhang and Solterman finished first in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:52.90.

In the 200-free relay, taking the top spot with a time of 1:45.44 were the Zhang twins along with Solterman and Molly Rowe. And in the 400-free relay, Linda Zhang, Chen, Rowe and Solterman won with a finish of 3:54.14.

Plenty to like

According to Canton head coach Ed Weber, the key is to not get caught up in the final score and instead look at positive trends. The Chiefs now are 1-1.

"Salem's really strong and they have been for years," Weber said. "They've got a great base. We're working on ours. We have good experience on our team and we're trying to build our team to put together a whole program.

"We're looking forward to the rest of the season, when we get into our division and we get toward some of the exciting meets in the future. This is always a good rivalry."

Weber added that there were plenty of things to be enthusiastic about Tuesday, despite the lopsided result.

"We had a lot of great swims," Weber said. "Sydney Darnall's been on fire the last couple meets and she had a great meet this particular time.

"Claire Green, she had a good 200 free (first, 2:02.86) and a particularly good 400 free relay. Emily Hugan in the 100 breaststroke, she dropped great time."

Hugan tallied a time of 1:13.54, second to Salem's Xu. Green also prevailed in the 500 free, with a time of 5:25.90.

"Emily Osika did a combo, the 200 free relay and the backstroke," Weber continued. "That's always a tough combo to come up with and she held strong in that backstroke."

Meanwhile, the Canton coach praised the effort turned in by senior Jocelyn Moraw in sprint freestyle events. Moraw finished second in the 200 free (2:11.82) with a personal best in that event, and finally cracked the 1-minute mark in the 100 free (58.81).